


Braided Lies

by Thisismysideaccount



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alya Césaire Is Not an Idiot, Alya Césaire Redemption, At least not completely, Badass Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Chloé Bourgeois Redemption, Lila Rossi Bashing, Lila Rossi's Lies Are Exposed, Manipulative Lila Rossi, Marinette Dupain-Cheng Needs a Hug, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug Deserves Better, Sort Of, highkey feel like this is really cringey, honestly this is more like a enemy of my enemy thing at first, its complicated
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2020-10-23
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:35:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27163247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thisismysideaccount/pseuds/Thisismysideaccount
Summary: Marinette had done this song and dance before.Most of her current class hadn't known her until her third year of collège, after she had lost everything to Chloe and had given up on fighting back.But Marinette grew up with Chloe.Marinette grew up knowing when not to play nice.So fine, if Lila wanted to force her hand, so be it.Marinette grew up wearing a braid.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Chloé Bourgeois, Chloé Bourgeois & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 34
Kudos: 646





	Braided Lies

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Pigtails are Off](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25063828) by [para_dox_normal](https://archiveofourown.org/users/para_dox_normal/pseuds/para_dox_normal). 
  * Inspired by [Red Queen](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26351488) by [Lil_Sphinx](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lil_Sphinx/pseuds/Lil_Sphinx). 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Made this account just for this fic lmao. I needed to post it, but i have a lot of unfiniished works on my other one and i felt way too guilty. I hope you enjoy!

Marinette had done this song and dance before.

Most of her current class hadn't known her until her third year of collège, after she had lost everything to Chloe and had given up on fighting back. 

But Marinette grew up with Chloe. 

Marinette grew up knowing when not to play nice. 

So fine, if Lila wanted to force her hand, so be it. 

Marinette grew up wearing a braid. 

* * *

  
  


Marinette never liked being alone. 

She, of course, genuinely liked being able to be kind. She liked being able to help and see people's smiles.

But she also knew that being kind, and helpful, and  _ honest,  _ was the best way to make friends.

The best way to  _ keep  _ friends.

So she was always kind, always giving, even when it overwhelmed her, and hurt her, and made her feel like the world was out to get her. Because being kind was the right thing to do, and she had already tried out being the bad guy. 

She found that only a small part of her liked being feared.

* * *

_ "Marinette stole Mme. Allard's phone.  _ And  _ she managed to get her lesson plan too." _

_ "Serves her right for taking Chloe's bribe. Marinette may be a fucking bitch, but she knows who to target." _

_ A pair of blue eyes glanced at the pair of gossiping children. She idly played with the pink ribbon in her hair as she watched the group talk about her. _

_ They scattered like mice.  _

_ Marinette made pink look intimidating.  _

* * *

_ She was surrounded _ , she idly realized. 

Marinette looked at the group of girls who had become some of her closest friends over the year, and watched as they looked at her with betrayal and horror. 

"Marinette, how could you do this? We trusted you" Alya was looking at her like she had just shot her two little sisters. 

She was holding the "evidence", Lila's notebook burned and torn to shreds. Left in the trash bin next to her desk. 

If she were to have done anything, it wouldn't have been that sloppy.

She opened her mouth, to defend herself? She didn't know. She was supposed to be taking the high road. (Wasn't she?)

"I thought you and Lila were over it!"

"Maybe she really  _ did  _ push her down the stairs."

The tide was against her. She had seen this done a million times. Get a group of girls, give them a victim, show them any sort of proof, and mob mentality would work the rest out. 

"Marinette, how- how could you be such a  _ villain _ ?"

She hadn't even done anything! She felt Tikki in her purse, trying to be as comforting as she could be without revealing herself, but all Marinette felt was numb. The girls were yelling, but she couldn't really hear anything. 

Couldn't really see anything but Lila, looking smug, not even pretending to cry anymore. 

And then time seemed to slow down. 

Lila was approaching the front of the mob. Marinette couldn't even blame her friends for being fooled. Not this time. Lila had planted evidence  _ and  _ had set her up.  _ Again. _

Lila was reaching on to her desk. 

Lila was grabbing her sketchbook. (Wait-)

"Yeah Marinette, how would you like it if I did  _ this" _

Lila ripped a page from her sketchbook. And another. And another. 

The mob of girls quieted down. 

Marinette was silent. 

"Don't, uh, wasn't that going a bit too far"

Marinette's ears were ringing. 

"You guys were right. Marinette was a  _ villain!  _ She deserved a taste of her own medicine."

"Villain" Marinette repeated quietly. 

"Uh, but girl, we were gonna copy your notes for you. I don't think an eye for an eye was right in this situation. That was her-"

"Her what?! Are you saying that  _ her _ stuff is more important than mine?" And the fake waterworks were back on. 

"No- no that's not what I meant. Its just-"

"Its just what? You all agreed that she was the villain in all this. It was  _ your  _ idea to confront her."

" _ Villain? _ " She wasn't the villain. (But she could be.)

The group seemed to be split. But Marinette could care less about them. Could care less about all the time and effort put into being  _ kind.  _ Into  _ changing  _ and  _ bettering  _ herself so that she would stop hurting others. 

The group was arguing amongst themselves, hesitant and quiet at first, but now they were loud. Almost as loud as the blood rushing to her ears. Her eyes burned.

But she didn't care. 

"I'm the villain? You guys haven't  _ seen  _ me as the villain."

* * *

Chloe hated Marinette more than she hated anyone else in the classroom. Most of the boys were too annoying for her to even consider making them hers. The girls all had too many self esteem problems, and were too easily molded. 

But Marinette? Marinette was different. Marinette had  _ potential,  _ and that's what made her worse. 

Once upon a time, Marinette and Chloe had ruled their grade like queens. They were awful, they undermined each other at every turn, took what they wanted from who they wanted, and were the cruelest kids you could find. 

But then, one day Marinette decided she didn't like the way the kids in the grade looked at her. Didn't feel the same thrill when the teachers flinched at her glare. And so, as teachers began leaving the school, and new students began filing in, she just,  _ changed.  _ She bowed out and gave her full control of the school. 

Became a goody two shoes. Even when everyone was wary of her, and stayed hesitant. Even when most people weren't truly her friends until recently. 

She stayed timid. She stayed  _ kind.  _

It infuriated Chloe to no end because, after all their time being awful, and all that dancing around they did. It wasn't Chloe who brought Marinette to her knees, but Marinette knelt voluntarily. 

And Chloe could never forgive her for that. 

So she targeted the girl. Pulled her pigtails in hopes that they would go back to being in a braid. Glared at her to see if maybe she could still find those apathetic blue eyes. 

And yet, as she stared at Lila, who had just reawakened the beast she had been trying to find for years, she wondered if it were for the best, that Chloe had never been able to get that girl back. 

* * *

Marinette stood up. 

She carefully picked up the torn pages from the floor. Quietly grabbed her sketchbook from where it had been discarded on the desk. (Her  _ sketchbook. How could she? Lila couldn't even stop at isolating her. She  _ had  _ to take it one step further)  _

And she spared the class one look as she walked out. 

Chloe looked awestruck, and maybe a bit afraid. 

Marinette didn't care about the rest of them. 

* * *

  
  


When she got to her room, she collapsed in on herself, a mess of tears and (hothothot) anger and betrayal. They just  _ stood there and made her the villain! _

"Marinette! I'm so sorry" Tikki's voice was soothing, but there was nothing that the little goddess could say to talk her down from this. 

"Tikki its- I can't do this anymore. I  _ won't  _ do this anymore."

" _ Marinette-"  _ Tikki sounded sad, but Marinette didn't want to hear the  _ 'but'.  _ Didn't want to hear Tikki say she was wrong. 

"No Tikki. I'm done taking the high road. I'm tired of being kind and getting nothing from it. If they want a bad guy,  _ I'll be the bad guy" _

Tikki stewed in silence for a moment, but in the end she just sighed, looking at Marinette with her too old eyes. "Just, don't lose yourself, okay?"

Marinette only nodded. It was the least, she could promise the tiny god. 

* * *

_ Marinette watched Mme. Allard flinch  _ hard  _ as she approached the desk. The teacher had barely been at the school, but after having Chloe and Marinette in her class for two months, she already had an ingrained fight or flight response to her.  _

_ She had set a new record. Neat.  _

_ "Mme. Allard do you have a moment?" _

_ The woman nodded mutely.  _

_ "Great!" She started, smiling brightly. "I was wondering whether or not you could erase my friend's permanent record? Claude didn't really mean to hit the boy, and his parents are going to be  _ furious  _ if they find out." _

_ "I- I'm sorry Marinette, but I'm not allowed to do that-" _

_ The smile dropped off of Marinette's face. "Just like how you're not allowed to take the money that our  _ mayor  _ donates to our school and pocket a portion of it? And how you're not supposed to cheat on your husband with a man five years younger than you?" _

_ Mme. Allard was frozen in place, like a deer in headlights. "That's not- Are you threatening to  _ blackmail  _ me?!" _

_ Marinette slipped Mme. Allard's phone back into her purse as she fixed the woman with the biggest pair of doe eyes she could. "Blackmail? No. I was just  _ asking  _ you. I was going to ask my parents about it, but then they would ask the principal about it, or even the Board of Educators about it. I thought it would be easier to just ask you about it since it involves you and all." _

_ Mme. Allard was as white as a sheet, and was sweating like a pig. She let out a thin, shaky smile. "I'll see what I can do for your friend Claude, so could you keep what we talked about our little secret?" _

_ "Of course! That's why you're my favorite teacher." _

_ Liar. The only teacher in the school that she liked was the one science teacher who worked with the older kids. Mme. Mendelieve or something? It's not like she cared, that was just the only one she wouldn't be able to manipulate. And that brought about a certain level of respect.  _

* * *

Even as a child, Marinette hated liars, and there was no bigger liar than herself. 

Marinette hated lying because it was  _ easy. _

Bat your eyelashes just so, twitch at just the right moments, let your eyes water and your voice waiver and suddenly no one could tell the difference between truth and lies. Lila was skilled, certainly, but she was overconfident.

Lila was going to regret that.

Carefully, Marinette planned her next move.

She was going to call in a few favors.

* * *

Marinette was absent the next day. And the day after that. And the day after that. Most of the girls thought that she was taking a mental health break after Lila ripped her notebook apart.

Chloe knew better, and from the looks of it, so did some of the others.

Nino looked nervous, like this was the calm before the storm. (Not that he was wrong, but it was entertaining to see him toggle between looking scared and desperately begging Alya to reach out and apologize to Marinette.) Kim seemed to grow more uncomfortable as Marinette’s absence grew longer. Juleka looked absolutely terrified. It was to be expected. They were the last people in the class who knew Marinette before she became their “Everyday Ladybug”.

Chloe was just wondering what Marinette was waiting for. Marinette liked to play the long game, but Chloe found it odd for her to drop off the face the Earth the way she had. It was vaguely disturbing. She knew it meant that something big was coming when the bluenette eventually returned.

Lila wouldn’t know what hit her.

  
  


Marinette was absent for a total of two weeks.

In the end, her return wasn’t accompanied with fire and brimstone, like some people seemed to think it would be, but was accompanied by a surprise. 

Well, multiple surprises.

“Class, today we’ll be welcoming two new students. They recently moved back into the area, and want to continue their education here. Please welcome Claude Lavigne and Allegra Garnier.”

Chloe had to admit, she was shocked, if not extremely impressed. She hadn’t expected Marinette to bring  _ these two  _ back.

Marinette certainly had some balls.

* * *

_ “Class, today some new students will be joining us. Please welcome Allegra Garnier, Claude Lavigne, and Felix Culpa.” _

_ Three pudgy seven year olds stepped into the room. Allegra was a girl with pale skin and blue eyes that almost seemed violet in the light. She was hiding behind the blonde boy, Felix, who looked like he thought he was too cool for primary school. Claude looked normal enough. Tan skin, and he looked happy to make new friends. (But his brown eyes seemed to be hiding mischief. He smelled like a troublemaker.) _

_ They were seated at a table in the back, where a little girl was seated all by herself. _

_ “Hello, I’m Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Do you want to be friends?” _

* * *

Marinette walked in a few minutes after the two transfers.

Her hair was in a single braid, tied together with a pink ribbon.

Marinette made pink look intimidating. 

* * *

Taking back the metaphorical “crown” that she had back in Lycee and primary school would be hard.

Most people in the school thought she had mellowed out after puberty, and her wealth of information had dried out for the most part.

Which was where her old friends came in.

Claude and Allegra (and it was such a shame that Felix couldn’t come back, but alas, some things weren't meant to be) had come back with the purpose of infiltration and distraction. Claude’s prankster personality along with Allegra’s calm, agreeable one made them perfect to easily assimilate themselves with the class and the school as a whole. 

And they served as easy distractions that let her  _ actually  _ steal items to go through them.

If Lila thought that Marinette had been defeated, she had another thing coming.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [élémentaire](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29140812) by [Starlit_Dreaming](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starlit_Dreaming/pseuds/Starlit_Dreaming)




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